


Jim Lake Jr. and the Amulet of Daylight

by im_the_king_of_the_ocean (RebelliousWhirlpool)



Category: Trollhunters (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Jim as Harry Potter AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-03-26 02:49:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13848498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RebelliousWhirlpool/pseuds/im_the_king_of_the_ocean
Summary: In the year 2001, Gunmar (the Troll Lord) sought out a child prophesied to be his downfall.  He fails to kill the baby (but succeeds in felling the baby's mother).Jim grows up under the care of his disinterested father until he goes to Hogwarts at age eleven.This is the story of his first year there.





	1. Part 1 (Beginning Thru Gnome Bathroom Incident)

**Author's Note:**

> This is an old au I made (I think around last spring) and originally posted to Tumblr. Due to Tumblr's current issues, I've decided to cross post it in full here. With the exception of a few scenes, the format is still in summary form rather than narrative.

Well into the Wizarding World’s war against Gunmar and his Gumm-Gumm army, it was prophesied a child born at the beginning of spring at the start of the 2nd millennium would be the the Troll Lord’s downfall.   
  
Gunmar sought out the child and learned he was Jim Lake Jr. through his spy in the wizards’ forces, Dictatious.Dictatious knew who Jim was because his brother, Blinkous, a renown Hogwarts professor, knew the boy’s mother, Barbara Lake, back in his school days and kept in contact with her (as a family friend).  
  
Barbara has been divorced from her husband, James Lake, for a year when Dictatious gives up where she and Jim are hiding, so she faces off against the Troll Lord on her own.Gunmar tells her he’ll spare her if she gives up her son.She tells him to go fuck himself.  
  
Barbara sacrifices herself to save Jim.He becomes the Boy Who Lived.  
  
Since Barbara had no siblings and Kanjigar, who led the fight against Gunmar, can’t seem to figure out how to reach her muggle parents, he tracks down James Lake instead and give Jim to him to raise (he figures he’ll probably be safer with an actual wizard anyway).  
  
James Lake Sr. is a crappy parent in similar ways that the Dursleys were crappy to Harry (only in this situation, there is no Dudley).Most of James’s animosity toward Jim is due to the fact that Jim inherited Barbara’s blue eyes and James sees her whenever he looks at Jim.To the extent that he can, James feels a bit guilty about abandoning Barbara to face the greatest evil their world has ever known alone.James hates this and takes it out on Jim.  
  
As Jim grows older, James continuously leaves him on his own more and more.It gets to the point where, by the time Jim is eleven, he’s remarkably self-sufficient.When he receives his Hogwarts letter, he goes to Diagon Alley himself.He’s been going there for years anyway to get ingredients for meals, since James sort of forgot to continue feeding him a couple years back and Jim still needs to eat.  
  
Without his father’s dark presence looming over him, Jim actually enjoys himself for once on his trip to Diagon Alley.He explores to his heart’s content, but avoids interacting with others until he goes for his wand at Ollivander’s.There, he tries not to think about how he’s alone for one of the Big, Important Moments of his life, but he gets his wand (English Oak, dragon heartstring, 12 inches) anyway.  
  
Ollivander remarks sagely that Jim’s wand’s is made of English Oak, which was rumored to be the same wood of Merlin’s wand.But more importantly, it shares its core with the old wand of Jim’s mother, dragon heartstring.If Ollivander recalls correctly (and he believes he does), the wands’ cores came from the same great beast.This makes Jim very happy.His father has told him almost nothing about Barbara, so he knows little about her.  
  
Jim sits alone and eats a lunch he prepared for himself on the Hogwarts Express.The only other person in his compartment is a boy named Tobias Domzalski, who spends some of the trip grumbling about the lunch his Nana has packed him and the rest munching on sweets from the trolley cart, some of which he offers to Jim.Jim accepts the treats, but he’s not so sure about this friendly other boy.Yet.  
  
Jim is That Kid who falls into the lake while the first year’s are crossing in the boats.He was enchanted by the sight of the castle, stared too much at it, leaned forward, and fell.ARRRGGGHHH, the groundskeeper, helps him out of the water.Toby comforts him and cracks a joke about there being a Lake in the Lake.Jim laughs.Maybe a friendship is born.At the very least, Jim is smiling by the time they make it inside.  
  
No one’s ever explained the houses very well to Jim, but he knows the general traits of each one.He doesn’t consider himself smart enough for Ravenclaw or bold enough for Gryffindor.He’s uncertain what it means to be a Hufflepuff.He knows his father was Slytherin, so he accepts that that’s probably his lot in life and doesn’t argue when the Sorting Hat offers it up to him.He feels sad that Toby is sorted into Hufflepuff, because that means that’s the last he’s ever going to see of his new friend (spoiler: it’s not).  
  
Classes start and Jim finds he has an affinity for potions, cause it’s similar to cooking (in the measuring and mixing of ingredients).It helps that the potions master and Head of Slytherin House, Professor Strickler, likes him and has taken him under his wing.

Strickler knew Barbara back when they were in school.They briefly had a relationship, but then Barbara chose James over him.Strickler is still not quite over Barbara, but rather than take it out unfairly on her son, he decides to mentor the boy.This is also his way of stealing Jim away from James/replacing James as a father figure.  
  
To Jim’s happiness, he and the rest of the Slytherins have Potions and Herbology with the Hufflepuffs, so he gets to see Toby regularly.He starts to help Toby with potions (since Toby is horrible at it) and Toby helps him in Herbology (since Toby frequently used to garden with his Nana and Jim isn’t so good with plants).Their friendship strengthens and they start to spend time together outside of class, despite being in different houses.  
  
A standoff happens in Jim’s first brooms lesson, which the Slytherins share with the Gryffindors.Steve, a Gryffindor, steals the remembrall of Eli, also Gryffindor.Jim defends Eli and Steve challenges him to a flying duel.Since he doesn’t really know how to fly, Jim ends up falling off his broom and gets taken to the hospital wing.  
  
At the hospital wing, Jim meets Miss Janeth, the head healer.Miss Janeth recognizes him as having his mother’s eyes and reveals, years before, Barbara used to pester her with medical questions (since Barbara wanted to become a physician and Hogwarts doesn’t really offer specialized classes for that).She remembers Barbara fondly and tells Jim he can come ask for stories about his mother anytime.It takes Jim some time, but he does take her up on that offer.  
  
There is no troll emergency in the bathroom (trolls, for the most part, are quite civilized and live underground, with the exceptions of ARRRGGGHHH, Blinky the Transfiguration Professor, and Vendel the headmaster), but a pack of rogue gnomes do trap a first year Ravenclaw girl, Claire Nunez, in there.Jim and Toby happen to be nearby and help her escape.While running from the gnomes, the trio stumble upon a secret vault where the sacred artifact, Merlin’s Amulet of Daylight, is being kept safe.


	2. Jim's Sorting (Scene)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a short scene between Jim and the Sorting Hat

Then, finally, Professor Galadrigal called out “Lake, James Jr.”

Jim stepped forward, keenly aware of the squich-squelch of his soggy shoes and the drip, drip, drip of water from the cloak ARRRGH!!! had slung around his shoulders after hauling him out of the lake.He glanced up from his shoes.The sight of an entire Great Hall full of students nearly gave him a panic attack.Jim’s breath caught in his throat.He froze.Then Jim saw Toby, the boy he’d talked to on the train, wave cheerfully at him and mouth “good luck” from his recently claimed spot at the Hufflepuff table.Jim smiled back, feeling a little better.

He approached the stool all the other first-years had sat on for their Sortings.Professor Galadrigal gave him a reassuring, if rather toothy, smile.Jim sat down and felt the Sorting Hat being placed upon his head.It slipped over his eyes, blocking everything in the hall from view, and only didn’t consume the rest of his head because it got stuck on his nose.

A calm voice whispered in Jim’s ear, “Hmm.Let’s see what we have here” and he immediately didn’t like it.One of the first things Jim had learned living with his father was to keep his thoughts close and secretive.Letting someone else know them could be dangerous.Like, make Dad angry again because Jim accidentally reminded him of his mother again dangerous.Jim realized maybe the hat heard that thought and tried to make his mind blank.He thought of the static of a malfunctioning television.

“There’s no need for that.”The voice whispered again.“I must see into you to Sort you.”

“No you don’t.”Jim thought back.“You can choose a house without prying into my head.I don’t want you in my head.Get out.Just say a house like you did for everyone else.”

The hat, if it were to have had an actual voice, would have sounded exasperated.“That’s not how it works.I look into your mind, see what your personality and your potential is, and decide which house will lead you to excel the most at whatever you choose to do. _That_ is the way it is done. _That_ is the way it’s always been done.Since the time of the Founders!Centuries!”

“It can’t be that hard, then, if you’ve been doing it for centuries.”Jim retorted.“You’ve had practice.So you can just choose one.Without looking inside my head.”

“This entire conversation is taking place inside your head, child.Just let me-”

“No.”

“Very well.Have it your way.For your stubbornness and your attitude I see no other choice for you than _SLYTHERIN_!”

And then, quite abruptly, the hat was pulled off Jim’s head.Professor Galadrigal patted him twice on the shoulder, and then pointed him off in the direction of the Slytherin house table, where his new housemates were clapping and cheering for him.

Jim hesitated, nervous about walking up to an entire group of strangers even if he’d probably get to know them well during his time at Hogwarts.Then went to the Slytherin table anyway and sat down at an empty seat.A few congratulated him, but attention quickly turned to the next first-year’s sorting.


	3. Part 2 (Winter Break Thru Mirror of Erised)

The three left the Vault as they found it, but afterwards Jim had a strange, prickly presence in the back of his mind, like something was calling to him.Unsettled by it, he’d refuse to listen.But Jim had a weird feeling he wasn’t done there.  
  
Life returned to normal, with the noted change of Claire becoming Jim and Toby’s friend.Though, the friendship between Jim and Claire happened a bit quicker than it did for Toby and Claire.  
  
This may have been due to the fact Toby went home for the winter holidays, but neither Claire nor Jim did.Claire, because her mother was the Minister of Magic and it was easier for her if Claire just remained at Hogwarts.Jim, because his father had been caught by the muggle police for some minor crime or another-Jim had stopped keeping track of all of them ages ago-and would be in prison through the spring.  
  
Thus, Jim and Claire found they had Hogwarts almost to themselves for a few weeks and used that time to explore and have adventures.   
  
They got lost an entire day because the staircases kept changing.After hours of roaming and chatting, they managed to find the perfect, most comfortable sitting room to rest in for a bit.However, when they tried to find it again later, they got lost a second time as the room had apparently vanished.  
  
After a heated discussion on the matter, Jim and Claire formulated a plan to sneak each other into their respective common rooms to compare which had the better view.Claire argued Ravenclaw Tower, as it had a breathtaking view of the sky and the grounds.Jim, Slytherin Dungeon, because everyone could see the sky, but not everyone got visited by a giant, bioluminescent squid regularly.In the end, they agreed both common rooms were nice in their own ways.It was much more fun trying not to get caught than to argue anyway.  
  
They briefly considered daring each other to so see how close they’d get to the Whomping Willow, but neither could go through with it.They had an epic snowball fight instead.  
  
Kanjigar, the head of Gryffindor House who taught Defense Against the Dark Arts, was Jim’s least favorite professor (due to the fact that Kanjigar always seemed to pick on Jim in class, asking him tough questions he clearly couldn’t know the answers to and such).He also happened to be one of the professors who stayed on the grounds during the break.During Jim and Claire’s snowball fight, he may have been walking by and Jim may or may not have “accidentally” thrown snowballs in his direction.Five times.  
  
Jim got in trouble for this, but decided it was still worth it.  
  
A bit of work came in the form of Claire insisting they research the Amulet of Daylight in the library after Jim told her about the persistent, weird presence in the back of his mind.Though they spend hours reading books, they came up with no explanations as to why it was happening.  
  
For the first time in his life, Jim received holiday gifts that weren’t whatever odd item his father had easy access to and could shove in his general direction.A big package full of cookies, fudge, candies, odd and unique stones Toby thought he’d like, and a warm sweater knitted by Toby’s Nana arrived for him from the Domzalski house.Claire gave him a book of new recipes he’d never heard of before.  
  
Jim’s gifts to his friends subsequently were to make (and send, in the case of Toby) them which dessert treat he thought they’d like best.  
  
One quiet morning, Jim took a plate of fresh muffins he’d baked the night before down to the Hospital Wing and asked Miss Janeth for stories about his mother.They’d spend the next few hours talking.  
  
Jim learned his mother had been the first hat-stall in over a decade.The Sorting Hat had debated back and forth between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff for her.Gryffindor, because it sensed great fierceness and stubbornness in Barbara.Hufflepuff, because it saw in her a deep kindness and desire to improve the lives of others.Barbara had gotten tired of its contemplations and told it to decide already.There were others waiting.The Sorting Hat took this into consideration and declared her Gryffindor.  
  
Jim didn’t know how to feel about this, being a Slytherin himself, but he wouldn’t admit that to Miss Janeth.  
  
One of Miss Janeth’s favorite memories about Barbara, as she told Jim, was Barbara’s aspirations of combining muggle and wizard medicine.Upon finding out that wizards used none of the muggle world’s advancements, Barbara had set about trying to change that.If, she’d reasoned, both worlds could help so many people, think of what they could do if they worked _together_.  
  
After telling Jim that, Miss Janeth went silent.She walked back to her office, remained there for a few minutes, and then came back with a few of Barbara’s old notebooks and journals she’d managed to keep.  
  
Jim didn’t understand pretty much anything scribbled in those books.Both because the concepts were far too advanced for him and because his mother’s handwriting was as horrible as his own.But he loved being able to hold something she’d once held and run his fingers over her chicken-scratch notes and doodles.  
  
When he returned to his dormitory, Jim found the final gift he would receive.A delicate parcel he found by his bedside.On a small card attached to it, written in shimmering green ink, were the words;

_To Jim Lake Jr._

_To protect you as it did your mother and I on our wanderings of the castle_

_May you have just as many adventures_  
  
There was no name signed anywhere on the card, but it did smell strongly of the Potions classroom (though this only occurred to Jim some time later, when classes started again). Jim unwrapped the parcel to discover a fine Invisibility Cloak.His first use of it was to play a prank on Claire.  
  
Then, one night, Jim woke in a panic and rushed from his dormitory.Something was wrong, something with the Amulet of Daylight (he wasn’t sure how he knew that).He threw the cloak over himself to traverse the castle undetected until he reached the Vault.Outside it, unseen, he witnessed a standoff between Kanjigar and a figure concealed in shadow.He couldn’t catch most of what they were saying before they left, but he knew what was happening.  
  
Kanjigar was trying to steal the Amulet.Jim was sure of it.And he had to be stopped.  
  
The next night, Jim used the Invisibility Cloak to sneak into the Restricted Section of the library, looking for clues on the Amulet of Daylight (and how to keep it safe).Alone, because, if he got in trouble, he didn’t want to get Claire in trouble with him.


	4. Part 1 (Beginning Thru Gnome Bathroom Incident)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While sneaking around late one night under his new invisibility cloak, Jim stumbles across a chamber he's never been in before and a mysterious mirror that shows him a strange woman.

Jim crept through the silent library.  He glanced around, but no one else was there.  Still, he couldn’t shake the eerie feeling at the back of his mind, even though he was under the safety of his invisibility cloak.

During the day, when sunlight streamed in through the windows, the library was a comfortable, familiar place.  But now, it felt like he’d stepped into a parallel world.  One full of darkness and shadows.  Jim pressed his lips together.  He’d look through the Restricted Section as quickly as possible and then head back to the comfort of bed.

When he reached the books he knew he wasn’t supposed to browse, Jim carefully placed his lantern down on the shelf.  He breathed in relief.  Walking with an invisibility cloak thrown entirely over oneself was hard enough _without_ a bulky light.  But, he couldn’t risk it being seen.  He and Claire had spent hours searching the regular sections for anything on the Amulet of Daylight and come up empty.  If the library held any information about the artifact in the Vault on Hogwart’s fourth floor, it would be here, in the Restricted Section.

Jim studied the spines of the books.  He pulled a thick one with a title in a language he didn’t recognize, but was sort of similar to the Trollish language on the rim of the Amulet, out of its place and heaved it down next to his lantern.  He opened it.

An outraged troll face formed out of the book’s pages.  It screamed at Jim.  Two twisted hands formed from the book’s pages.  They reached for Jim.

Jim ran.

His heart thundered in his ears.  His invisibility cloak whipped around his ankles.  Jim was sure his feet were visible, but he didn’t stop.  Fear of the book troll being right behind him egged him on.  He raced down a corridor.  Saw an ajar door.  Ran for it.  Slammed the door closed behind him.

Jim tugged off his invisibility cloak.  He leaned on the door and sank to the floor.  His chest heaved as he gasped for breath.  But he was safe.  A book troll couldn’t make it through a door.  It occurred to him that a book troll probably wouldn’t be able to chase him in the first place.

Jim determined to never ever, _ever_ tell Claire about this incident.  Ever.

Something gleaming on the other side of the chamber caught Jim’s eye.  He looked toward it, a large piece of furniture hidden under a covering.  Though the covering had slipped and a small, shiny corner of whatever it was shone in the moonlight streaming in from a nearby window.

Curious, Jim walked to it.  He heaped his invisibility cloak on the floor and yanked the covering off the furniture piece, a mirror.

Jim jumped back.  Lost his footing.  Fell to the floor.

In the mirror, stood a woman.  One Jim didn’t recognize.

He glanced behind him, expecting to see her there.  And for her to possibly yell at him for being out of bed when the rules clearly stated students were not to leave their dormitories at night.  But there was no one else in the chamber.  Jim turned back at the mirror.

The woman still stood there.  She smiled at Jim.

Jim edged back, a little unnerved.  “Are you a magic mirror person?”  He asked her.  It made sense.  If he’d learned anything about Hogwarts by now, it was that magic waited around every corner.  Plus, that would explain the whole “wasn’t really there” bit.   “Do you…grant wishes?  Is that why they hid you in here?”

The woman didn’t speak, but continued to stand there.

“You can’t answer me, can you.”  Jim walked around the mirror, partially to search for clues and partially to get away from her gaze.  There was nothing behind the mirror that explained anything.  But he did find a tag hanging off its side that read, _Mirror of Erised.  Treat with caution and don’t look too long._ Jim returned to the mirror’s front.  “Is that your name?  Erised?  Please, tell me something.  Anything.”

Slowly, the woman shook her head.

Jim huffed.  “Then who are you?  Why are you here?  Why are you looking at me like that?  _Stop it._ ”

Thankfully, the woman turned away from Jim then.  She looked down at her hands, which she held out in front of her.  Gradually, a vague, blurred shape appeared there and sharpened into focus.  It was a muggle newspaper.

Jim leaned closer to read its headline.

 

_LOCAL WOMAN FOUND DEAD IN HOME.  March 20th, 2001_

_ARCADIA HOLLOW—Late in the evening on March 19th, a home invasion occurred at 713 Potter Street.  Neighbors were out dancing at the time and did not report the crime until the next morning.  The proprietor of the home, Barbara Lake, was found dead at the scene.  Her one year old son, James Lake Junior, has been confirmed missing.  Anyone with information on the whereabouts of young James are urged to contact the Arcadia Police Department at-_

 

Jim took a step back.  Then another.  And another.  Not completely sure he wanted to, he studied the woman.  Really studied her this time.

She was of an average height and a handful of years older than the 7th Years.  Her red hair, which must have been fiery in life, was pulled back in a messy bun that appeared seconds away from falling apart.  She wore a pair of smart, square glasses over a slender nose.  Behind those glasses, a pair of vivid blue eyes watched Jim.  Those he recognized instantly.

All his life, Jim had been told he had his mother’s eyes.  He’d never really understood why.  Sure, his eyes were blue, but lots of people had blue eyes.  They weren’t that special.  Except that they were.  His mother had had blue eyes, like him, but the shade of blue they were was deeper and a bit more indigo that what was usual.  They stood out in such a way that people noticed, and, more importantly, remembered.  Jim had inherited those same eyes.  He’d just never thought them unusual before because they were his.  But looking at them on someone else, he began to understand.

“Mom?” Jim whispered.

The woman in the Mirror of Erised, Barbara Lake, nodded.

Tentatively, Jim returned to the mirror.  He bit his lip and adverted his gaze.  What did you say to the mother you never knew?  When that mother also happened to be in a mirror?  

Barbara knelt down so she was at Jim’s level, but offered no reassurances like Jim so desperately wanted.

He didn’t know what he wanted her to do exactly.  Something motherly.  Something…once, while in Diagon Alley buying groceries, Jim had witnessed a boy his own age being fitted for new robes.  The boy had stepped off the fitting stool and his mother had hugged him.  Jim stared at Barbara, knowing it was impossible.  He flattened his hand against the mirror’s cold surface.  

On the other side, Barbara’s hand met his own.

Jim’s vision swam before his eyes.  Tears trickled down his face.

“I just want to know you.”  He sobbed.  But there was no reply. 

Jim sat down.  He stayed with the mirror the rest of the night.  A part of him was sleepy and wanted to go to bed, but this was the closest he was ever going to get to his mother.  He wasn’t ready to leave.  Not yet.  Not until morning.

He came back the next night, and the night after that. 

Until, the night mirror was no longer there.

Jim searched every inch of the room, but found no clues on to where it may have gone.

“Looking for something, Young Atlas?”

Jim froze.  Spun around.

There at the entrance of the chamber, outlined in moonlight, stood Professor Strickler.  He held his hands folded together in front of him.  His eyes watched Jim like those of a prowling cat.

“I…”

“Have completely disregarded the rules about being out of bed at this hour.  I’m sure our caretaker, Mr. Gato would be abhorred if he knew.”  Strickler walked closer.  “However, I do believe I am partly to blame for your nighttime excursions, so it would be hypocritical of me to inform him.”

Jim gulped.  “There was this mirror, sir.  One that…where is it?  My mom-”

“Was never truly there, I’m afraid.”  Strickler reached Jim and placed a hand on his shoulder.  “The Mirror of Erised is an ancient, magical device.  It will show you what, or who, you want to see most desperately in the world.  But it cannot give them to you.  What you saw in the mirror was a projection of your mother as she was in life, no more.”  He paused.  “It would not do to dwell on such things.  In any case, our auspicious headmaster, Vendel, has ordered the Mirror of Erised be moved to a new home.  One I am certain you will not be able to find, even with the aid of a certain cloak of invisibility.”

“How do you know-?”

Strickler smirked.  “About your cloak?  Just who do you think gave it to you, Young Atlas?  Now, come along to bed.”  He wrapped an arm around Jim and guided him toward the door.

“Sir,” Jim started while they were on their way out.  “Can I ask you a question?”

“I hope I have never discouraged you from asking questions, Young Atlas.”

“What do you see in the mirror?”

Strickler’s expression tightened.  His lips thinned.  But he still answered Jim.  “A pair of nice, warm socks.  They are so very hard to come by these days.”

It was a lie, but Strickler would never admit to seeing the same woman Jim did in the Mirror of Erised.

 


	5. Part 3 (End of Winter Break Thru Entering the Vault)

The winter holiday ended, Toby returned from home, and things returned to normal or as normal as they got at Hogwarts.

Jim filled Toby in on his and Claire’s unsuccessful attempts to find out more about the Amulet of Daylight, the scene he witnessed between Kanjigar and the person cloaked in shadow outside its Vault, and his suspicions that Kanjigar was trying to steal the amulet for his own nefarious purposes.

Jim did not tell Toby about his experience seeing his mother in the Mirror of Erised.He’d never even told Claire about that.A part of him wanted to tell his friends, but he also felt that that was private.

Anyway, Toby suggested they go see AAARRRGGGHH the groundskeeper about the Amulet since AAARRRGGGHH was an old family friend of the Domzalskis and of Vendel the headmaster, so if anyone knew anything (and was likely to tell them), it was him.

They did not have much luck with AAARRRGGGHH.He definitely knew something, but he was more tightlipped than they’d thought he’d be.Still, the groundskeeper was friendly and left them with an open invitation to come over for tea whenever they wanted.Toby took him up on that offer more than the others.

Jim grew frustrated at their lack of progress with the Amulet.The tingling feeling in the back of his head had progressed into strong migraines that could last for hours.He knew something was going to happen, but he didn’t when and it agitated him.

Eventually, tired of what he thought was Claire and Toby’s lack of interest or concern (they did really care and were worried about him, but they were also eleven-year-olds who had no idea how to handle mysterious, ancient magic and so couldn’t help very much), Jim stopped telling them about his problems.

Jim went to Miss Janeth instead.She gave him a remedy for his headaches, one that he would have to come back to the Hospital Wing regularly to take.Each time Jim visited, she told him more stories about his mother.

On one such visit, Miss Janeth suggested that Jim may try to go to the Amulet himself.Ancient magic often worked in strange ways.Maybe it was trying to tell him something.

Jim tried later that night, but Kanjigar stood guard outside the Vault and he couldn’t manage to get around him.He spent the entire night watching Kanjigar under the invisibility cloak, yet the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor didn’t enter the Vault either.That puzzled him, but he didn’t like Kanjigar enough that Jim still believed he was up to something.

After that, Jim grew worried enough to go to his head of house, Professor Strickler, but he couldn’t find him anywhere.Not his office.Not the Potions classroom.Nowhere. 

Eventually Jim ran into Professor Blinkous Galadrigal, who told him Strickler, and Vendel were away from Hogwarts seeing to a most important matter but he was sure he, Blinky, could help with whatever was bothering Jim, as he, as deputy headmaster, had been left in charge until their return.

Jim didn’t believe (or trust) Professor Galadrigal, so didn’t tell him anything.He also figured out that if Kanjigar was going to successfully steal the amulet, it would be now, while the two most powerful (in his mind) wizards in the castle were gone.

So, that night, Jim, making use of his invisibility cloak again, returned to the Vault.No one stood guard.He unlocked the door with the _Alohomora_ spell Claire had taught him.

Inside the Vault, there wasn’t much.Just the Amulet itself, resting on a cushiony pillow on a pedestal in the center of the room.

But, upon his entry, it glowed and called out his name, “JAMES LAKE JUNIOR”.

Jim approached the Amulet.He picked it up.Nothing happened.No defense systems were activated, which he found a bit odd.He turned the amulet over in his hands.It felt warm, comfortable even.Like it belonged in his grasp.

Footsteps approached from behind Jim.He spun around, expecting Kanjigar.

Instead standing at the entryway was Miss Janeth.


	6. Part 4 (Vault Confrontation Thru Ending)

Jim was relieved to see Miss Janeth, because he trusted her and thought she could help him understand what was happening.She even said so.  
  
Or rather, she told him, “The Amulet of Daylight is an ancient relic, Jim.One that chooses who controls its power and it has chosen you.”She said this as she walked over to the wall and pulled a lever Jim hadn’t seen.“Would you like to see what it’s power can do?”  
  
The stones making up the wall moved, exactly like the ones in the Leaky Cauldron did to let someone into Diagon Alley, when Miss Janeth pulled the lever.The opening revealed an additional chamber, wherein rested a massive strange-looking bridge.  
  
“What is that?” Jim stepped forward.There was something hypnotizing about the bridge, something in the strange runes carved into it.Something that pulled him forward.In his hand, the Amulet of Daylight beat rapidly like a panicking heart.  
  
“The Killahead Bridge.”Miss Janeth’s tone was awed.“An ancient gateway between our world and the afterlife.”She approached Jim and put a hand on his shoulder.“The only way to open it is with the Amulet and the Amulet only obeys one.You.”  
  
“But why would anyone want to open it?”The bridge seemed creepy to Jim.He didn’t like it very much, he decided.

“To save one who was died before she ever should have.”Miss Janeth replied.“Jim, you have confided in me that you wish you’d gotten to know your mother.Wouldn’t you like to meet her?”She bent down to look him in the eyes.“If you open the bridge, we can bring her back.You won’t have to live with your terrible father anymore.”She guided him over to the bridge and pointed up at its top.“There.That little indenture.Place the Amulet there and together we can bring save Barbara from her premature death.”  
  
Something still didn’t feel right, but Jim walked onto the bridge anyway.He looked down at the Amulet in his hand.It glowed.The mysterious lettering around its border spun around and around until it was in English.It told Jim to ask Miss Janeth something.He did.  
  
“How do you know all this?Who told you?”  
  
Miss Janeth deflected.“That’s not important, Jim.What is is you putting the Amulet in the bridge.You will see your mother again as soon as you do.”  
  
Jim looked to the Amulet again.It spun again, new words forming, telling him he shouldn’t listen.He bit his lip.He wanted to, though.He wanted to meet his mother.To know what it was like to hug her.To feel her arms wrap around him.If this bridge could bring her back…  
  
The Amulet glowed with new words.A new name that Jim didn’t recognize, but made a shiver run up his spine.  
  
“Who is Gunmar?” Jim whispered to it.“Why would releasing him be bad?”  
  
Miss Janeth walked up behind Jim.“Gunmar is gone, Jim.You made sure of that yourself when you were a baby.You don’t have to worry about him.Now put the Amulet in the bridge.It’s what your mother would want you to do.She’d want to get to see you.”  
  
Jim went over to the indenture in the bridge.He started to put the Amulet in it.He stopped.“I don’t think this is a good idea.”He moved the Amulet away from the bridge.“It doesn’t feel right?”  
  
“Put the Amulet in the bridge, child.”Miss Janeth loomed above Jim.“I have not waited this long for you not to.”She lunged forward and tried to grab the Amulet away from Jim.“You don’t understand.How could you?You’re just a child.So, let me explain.Beyond the bridge is a world full of souls who left us too soon.Your mother included.They should be allowed to come back.I cared for them, so many of them, while they were here at Hogwarts.I tended to their injuries, healed them, and for what?Just so they could die before they truly lived, in a war?No.I will bring them back!”  
  
They struggled for hold of the Amulet, which vibrated and glowed brighter in Jim’s hand.  
  
Miss Janeth finally pried Jim’s fingers away from the Amulet and grabbed it out of his hand.Then she pulled his arm over the side of the bridge and forced his hand to push the Amulet toward the indenture.

Jim cried out and tried to resist.He felt the metal of the Amulet heat up in his hand.  
  
Suddenly there was a brilliant, blue light.It blazed around from the Amulet, surrounded Jim, but didn’t harm him.It flowed past him in gentle, warm waves.  
  
Then Jim heard the scream.The light wasn’t as kind to Miss Janeth.He didn’t see what happened.Not exactly.One moment she was there and the next there was a pile of dust where she had been.  
  
Shocked, Jim dropped the Amulet.It fell the long way down to the stone floor, where it shattered upon impact.   
  
Jim ran down off to the bridge to where the Amulet’s remains were, but whatever magic it had possessed, it was gone.He no longer felt the Amulet’s strange presence in his mind.  
  
Still, Jim picked up the pieces and tried to move them around like they had been before it broke, but he couldn’t fix it.While he tried, a small, smooth stone - a pebble really - tumbled out of one of the broken pieces.  
  
Jim picked the pebble up and turned it over and over in his hand.It was smooth and gray and cold.Not the usual type of cold, but one that felt like there was something coming.It was a strange feeling.

And then something did come.Out of the corner of his eye, Jim saw a light blue glow appear.He turned toward as it grew and formed into the shape of a person, a woman.A ghostly woman.One he did recognize, because he’d seen her once in the Mirror of Erised.  
  
Jim didn’t know it, but the little pebble he had and that had long resided in the Amulet of Daylight was the Resurrection Stone, an ancient artifact in it’s own right that had the power to call ghosts of the dead back from the beyond.Miss Janeth may have been wrong about the Amulet (and the bridge) having the power to restore life to the dead (the bridge did open a portal to another realm, but it wasn’t the afterlife.The Darklands were much, much worse), but the rumors she’d heard did have some kernel of truth to them.For many years, there had been a secret, restorative power inside the Amulet of Daylight.  
  
So, for the first time in his life, Jim got to meet his mother and be hugged by her, even if she was a ghost and her arms were freezing.There was still love in the way she looked at him and held him.  
  
They sat there with their arms around each other, in the middle of that chamber, for the rest of the night.They quietly talked about absolutely everything they could while they had the chance.  
  
When the night was over, Barbara told her son he couldn’t keep the Resurrection Stone.She needed to return to rest and he needed to return to his life.She would always love him and always be with him, just not literally.

So, after they left the chamber together, Jim hid the Resurrection in a crevice the hall’s walls.It would fall deep and get stuck someplace no one could reach it and remain there for centuries.His mom was gone with it, but Jim was happy he’d gotten to know her at least a little.  
  
In the end, it would take the return of Vendel and Strickler for anyone to figure out that Jim was there when the Vault was broken into and the Amulet destroyed.The story that had formed before that, when Professor Galadrigal found the Vault broken into, was that Janeth had attempted to steal the Amulet and its mystical magic had destroyed both her and it.   
  
It only took Strickler asking a few questions for Jim to reveal his presence when Janeth broke in and his hand in the Amulet’s destruction.Much to Jim’s surprise, he didn’t get in too much trouble.He didn’t get in trouble at all, actually (Strickler, Professor Galadrigal, and Vendel all agreed the knowledge of Jim’s presence in the Vault that night should be kept to an absolutely need-to-know basis and thus any form of “punishment” for nothing would have been suspicious).  
  
What Jim got was something better, much better.  
  
When Vendel and Strickler had left Hogwarts, they hadn’t just gone anywhere.Over the course of the school year, Strickler had been troubled by Jim’s unease and wariness around adults.Then, around the winter holidays, he overheard Jim telling Toby and Claire matter-of-factly that he wasn’t going home because his father was in prison.He’d confronted Vendel about him and Kanjigar leaving Jim with his father as a baby.Then (bringing Vendel along with him) went about finding a more suitable home for the child and found one.  
  
So, after his first year at Hogwarts would come to a close, Jim would find himself going to live with his kindly grandparents (Barbara’s parents) in their comfortable cottage by the sea.


	7. BONUS: The Shapeshifter's Tale (Full Summation)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The tale of Walter Strickler through his time at Hogwarts, as a spy through the war against Gunmar, and then as a Potions Master.

When Waltolomew Strickler was a young child, there was a redhead girl down the street from where he lived.He remembered being jealous of her family, of the love he witnessed between them whenever he passed their house.It hardly mattered to him they were muggles.  
  
Walt descended from a centuries old wizarding house that prided itself in not only being completely pureblood, but by also being family of metamorphmagi, wizards and witches born with the ability to shapeshift.Such lesser beings as the redhead girl’s family were certainly beneath them, his guardians told him time and time again.It would do no good to give them any regard.Still, Walt noticed the love.  
  
Walt proved himself magical when he was seven and he levitated every piece of furniture in the house.He was applauded, praised, and then everything went back to normal.He wandered outside on his own, down to a wood and a small pond to watch the ducks that usually swam there.  
  
The redhead girl sat crying by the pond that day.The ducks were gone, but long tendrils of water floated in the air in lazy circles around the girl’s head and nearby buttercups grew, bloomed, and withered in a matter of seconds.It was all very magical.Except for the crying bit.  
  
Walt had never been comforted, but he’d read about it in books.So, he sat down next to the girl and told her it was ok.She told him she was scared, she didn’t understand what was going on and she hated not being able to understand something.  
  
When Walt told her she was a witch, she punched his arm.He yelped, then snapped that it wasn’t an insult.It meant she was magical, special.See, he was a wizard.He changed the buttercups from yellow to blue to pink to orange.No longer fearful, she watched in awe.Then stuck out her tongue in concentration and made the flowers transform into the shapes of butterflies to fly around them.  
  
Walt learned the redhead girl’s name was Barbara Miller.   
  
They spent most of their time running around and experimenting with magic together after that.   
  
Walt told Barbara all about Hogwarts, where they would go to school.She’d get a letter in the mail when she turned eleven and then have to go buy all sorts of things from Diagon Alley.He’d come with her and her parents to show them around, since he’d been to the alley lots of times already and knew all there was to know about it.Barbara didn’t believe that last part and punched him in the arm again.  
  
Walt’s first trip to Diagon Alley when he was eleven happened with his guardians.It was a proper, organized visit, one befitting of their stature in the wizarding world.  
  
He had to sneak out for the second, the one he did with Barbara and her parents and it was, by far, the much more fun of the two.  
  
They ran around from shop to shop, motivated by Barbara’s desire to see absolutely everything.By the time they reached a pet store, they’d realized they’d left her parents behind somewhere and had to go back for them.Mostly because they needed them to buy a toad Barbara had seen in the shop and decided she wanted as her familiar.  
  
Even before they reached Hogwarts, Walt knew he was destined for Slytherin.It was his family’s traditional house, after all.He secretly hoped it wouldn’t be where Barbara got sorted.It wasn’t that he didn’t want to share a house with his friend, but he knew a bit more about Slytherin than her.Slytherin House did have a few good qualities, yes.But they also were notoriously horrible about blood status and she was muggle-born.He didn’t think that would go well.  
  
Barbara was the first hat-stall in over a decade.Everyone watched as the Sorting Hat deliberated.Anticipation turning to concern after a couple minutes.Later, Barbara told Walt that the hat had a hard time choosing between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff.It never considered Slytherin, where Walt indeed got placed, and only briefly did Ravenclaw.She was smart enough, certainly, but the Sorting Hat saw in her courage and a strong desire to help others.Those traits, it reasoned, would be what guided her future rather than her intellect alone.After much consideration on the hat’s part which would be better, Barbara herself suggested, maybe Gryffindor?She knew how to be empathetic and kind already she thought, but she had once cried upon learning she was magical.She wanted to learn how to be braver.Bolder.The hat listened and declared it so.  
  
Their first years at Hogwarts were happy ones.Despite their houses’ distaste for each other, Walt and Barbara maintained their friendship.  
  
They spent hours studying together in the library or out wandering the grounds.Walt entertained Barbara by shapeshifting in funny ways.Barbara explained everything she was learning about medicine by getting to spend time with Miss Janeth, the matron of the Hospital Wing.She even got to assist her during a few Quidditch games a couple times.  
  
It was during their fifth year a couple rather important things happened:  
  
Walt finally got the courage to try out for his house’s Quidditch team.He didn’t get the Seeker position, as he wanted, but he did manage to become the Slytherin team’s Keeper.  
  
One of Walt’s fellow fifth-years, James Lake, was chosen over him to be Slytherin’s Seeker.Unknown to Walt, Barbara had had a massive crush on James since third year.  
  
Headmaster Vendel decided to reinstate the Troll Moon Ball, a traditional dance that hadn’t been done for fifty years.Delegations from other wizarding schools were invited too.  
  
Walt and Barbara went go to the ball together as friends.By the end of the night, though, James asked Barbara to dance (and she accepted).After the ball, they started dating.  
  
Walt never told Barbara about his own crush on her since he wanted her to be happy, even if that meant she wouldn’t be with him romantically.  
  
In the world outside Hogwarts, the conflict between wizards and the Troll Lord, Gunmar, finally escalated into all-out war.  
  
Walt and Barbara’s final two years at Hogwarts then were overshadowed by the war and, after leaving school, both immediately joined the main organization resisting Gunmar, the Order of the Stalklings.  
  
Due to his family origins (and their connections to Gunmar), Walt was asked personally by Vendel to allow himself to be recruited into Gunmar’s horde as a spy.He agreed, but Walt also revealed the plan to Barbara, as he couldn’t bear the thought of her believing he genuinely joined up with those who wanted her dead due to blood status.  
  
They didn’t know it then, but when they said their goodbyes before Walt left as a spy was the last they they ever saw each other.  
  
Walt only heard about Barbara’s short-lived marriage to James and the birth of their son in passing.  
  
His time as a spy was the darkest days of Walt’s life.He excelled at the job, though, and quickly grew through the ranks until he was working with Gunmar’s son, Bular.Walt didn’t like his job and held onto the hope that the intel he was passing on was worth his time in the horde.  
  
Walt knew of all Gunmar’s machinations, save for one.Gunmar had his own spy in the Order’s ranks, Dictatious Galadrigal.Gunmar kept the knowledge of who knew Dictatious’s true allegiance very close.The only one who knew other than the Troll Lord was Bular.This was due to Gunmar suspecting there was a spy within his horde, but he didn’t know who.  
  
Therefore, when Dictatious learned of the prophecy of a child born at the beginning of spring who would be Gunmar’s downfall, and not only told Gunmar, but also told him that the child was likely James Lake Jr., son of Barbara and James, Walt was unaware of his betrayal.He only learned the truth when it was too late to pass on a warning.  
  
Walt didn’t make it there in time the night Barbara died for her son, but he did make sure she was brought home to her parents in their little village for a proper burial.He mourned with them while everyone else celebrated the demise of Gunmar. 

All Walt could tell Barbara’s parents about their grandson’s location was that he was safe, for that was all Vendel told him.  
  
Many years later, Walt learned the old headmaster thought it best to leave the child in the care of James Lake.They got into an extremely loud argument about the choice.  
  
But, in the immediate aftermath of Gunmar’s fall, Walt went on a warpath.Without their Troll Lord, Gunmar’s forces were left scrambling and it wasn’t too difficult for one who had intimate knowledge of their workings and hierarchy (and a thirst for vengeance) to come after them one by one and effectively destroy the last of the Troll Lord’s army.  
  
Still, that didn’t completely satisfy Walt’s anger over Barbara’s death (though most of it was at himself for just not knowing of Dictatious’s deceits or realizing soon enough).He took a job at Hogwarts as Potions Master and Head of Slytherin when Vendel offered it to him, intent on reforming Slytherin House.  
  
And so he did.Some of Gunmar’s followers may have been able to avoid his justice due to their wealth and status, but Walt was still able to steal their children from them.Through teaching, he guided their heirs into realizing they didn’t have to follow in their parents footsteps or take up their old prejudices.He helped them cultivate their passions and figure out their own paths in life.  
  
It was very satisfying for him to watch his students shrug off their parents’ outrage and disappointment that the offspring they had only thought of as tools were refusing to take up the roles they wanted.  
  
Among Walt’s personal favorite students were Zelda Nomura, who went into archeology after school, and Otto Scaarbach, who used his shapeshifting talents to start a theater company.Both maintained contact with him through the years.  
  
Walt settled in to his role as professor as the years passed.Barbara became a carefully compartmentalized memory, one he put effort into not thinking of often.He wasn’t necessarily happy all the time, but he did have his moments.Particularly when he read Nomura’s letters about what pottery she found on her most recent expedition or Scaarbach’s updates on his plays.  
  
Then, at the start-of-term feast a decade after Barbara’s death, a somewhat soggy boy wrapped in a coat much too large for him (that year’s candidate for First Year Who Fell In The Lake, most certainly) stepped up to be sorted when Professor Blinky Galadrigal read out his name, James Lake Jr.  
  
That name didn’t mean much to Walt, who still remembered Barbara mostly under her maiden name.The boy himself didn’t strike him as Slytherin material.Hufflepuff maybe, but not his own house.It was quite a shock to Walt when Slytherin was where Jim ended up being sorted.

It took Walt hearing the whispers about the Boy Who Lived to realize just who this small, skinny child was.   
  
And not much for him to decide that it was his job to protect and watch over Jim during his years at Hogwarts, as Barbara would have wanted.  
  
This wound up being a particularly difficult task, as Jim had a knack for attracting trouble.


End file.
